Railway.



C. A. GRIFFITH.

RAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED SEPTIIS. I916.

Patented June 4, 1918.

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c. A. GRIFFITH.

RAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I3. 1916.

1,268,344., Patented June 4, 1918.

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RAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 13. I3 6.

1,268,34A Patented June 4, 1918.

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lnvemtoz dtkozmua C. A. GRIFFITH.

RAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-13.1916

Q 1,268,344. Patented June 4, 1918.

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sections or doors the forward was A. emrrrrn, or razax crr'z, rnmm'ssnntpeeation of Letter-t Patent.

Patented June d, 119w.

Application filed September 13, 1918. Serial No. 119,908.

To all whom it may'concem:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A.

a citizen of the Park City,

GRIFFITH, United States, residing at in thecounty of Knox and State a of Tennessee, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railways, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawin My improvement relates particularly to railways in which provision is made for dumping loose material through the bottom of a car at a chosen point on the track of the railway.

The object of theimprovement is to pro vide a railway having cars of economical and durable construction and which are adapted to the automatic opening of the bottom for dumping and to the subsequent automatic closing of the bottom preparatory to receiving a newload, the track or way cooperating with the cars to open and close bottom doors in the latter to the end that a train of such carsmay be made to pass a dumping station and automatically dump at Such station, the bottom of each car afterward automatically closing, while the train is in motion and without the assistance of an attendant, the man in charge of the locomotive being the only person necessary to operate the train, if the train be operated by a and no person at all being needed in connection with the train, if the train is moved by gravity or cable or other means capable of operation without the presence of a person on the train. features of my improvement are applicable whether the releasing and closing of the doors is automatic or non-automatic.

A further object of my improvement is to provide cars of relatively large capacity in which the load is placed close to the level of the rails, in order that the car may have greater stability, and in orderthat a car of a given capacity will require a minimum of head-room. a

My improvement is specially applicable to use at mines for the hauling of coal or other minerals.

By way of introduction, it may be stated relative to the cars forming a part of my invention that, in a general way, the car body is of ordinary form and that the bottom of the car is composed of a plurality of, ortions of which are hinged on lines whic are horizontal and transverseto the length of the Some car, the rear edge of one door being normally held in the elevated position (the position for receiving and holding a load) by a latch mechanism, while the rear edge of the next door normally rests upon the forward edge of said latch-controlled door when the latter is in the raised or closed position, and while the rear edge of the third door rests upon the forward edge of the second door (when the latter is in the raised or closed position), and while the rear edge of the next door rests upon the forward edge of the last mentioned door when the latter is in the raised or closed position, and so on through the series of doors. Thus one door of the series iscontrolled by the latch, and each of the others is held by its next rear neighbor.

Hence the releasing "of the latch on the one door leads to the It is to be noted, however, that certain portions of my invention are applicable to a car having only one such door.

At the dumping station are placed devices which are adapted to enter into operative relation with the passing car for releasing the door latch mechanism and for subsequently turning the doors upward into their normal or closed the train. In the-accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a car and a portion of atrack illustrating my improvement;

Fig; 2 is a plan of what is shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. *3 is a transverse upright section immediately at the rear of the car, whereby the bumper is cut 0d;

Fig; 4 is a bottom view of the car, portions being broken away; a Fig. 5 is a longitudinal upright section positions without stopping 1 showing the car in'engagement with a means for raisingthe bottom doors. Y

Referring to said drawings, A, A, are track rails resting onties, A, and piers, A. B, B, are ordinary car wheels applied to -.to the ends of axles, C, (1' D is the body of the car. D D are side beams formln portions of the car. The ends of these cams are joined to and stayed by the bumpers, D, and the end walls, D", of the body. The beams are metal channels. Boxes, 0 seated in the channels of he bea'ins receive the axles, G.

releasing of allthe doors- The end of the car at the right as viewed" 1m in the drawings is the forward end ofithe car, and it is to be understood that the car the doors after the load has been discharge so arranged as to bring its pivot, E",

' dumping I station 1 to engage from the car. The discharge is downward between the rails, A, and the place at which the dischargeis effected, is called the dumping station. Beneath the ra1ls,-A, the ma terial discharged from the .car may be received bya chute or another car or any other suitable device, not shown.

Three doors, E, are placed in series to form the bottom of the car. Since the rearv most of these three doors controls the series, it may be regarded as the first of the series and for that reason be described first. Sald door has at its forward edge three ears or hinge members, E which surround the rear axle, C, At its rear edge two bars or arms, E, are attached to the lower face'of the door and projecta little way rearward of said rear edge. On the rear end of the car body and in an upright plane transverse to the length of the car body are a pair of large bell cranks, E pivoted at E to the car body. Each hook, E, adapted to extend beneath-the adj acent bar or arm, E each bell crank being above its hook, whereby the arm bearing the hook may swing toward and from the upri ht, middle longitudinal plane of the car w ile the arm, E, of the bell crank extends horizontally outward and by its preponderating weight tends to tilt the bell crank so as to move said hook toward said plane. Each of said hooks has a bevel face, E, adapted to be engaged by the adjacent bar or arm,-

E when the latter is carried upward by the upward movement of the rear portion of the door into the closed position.

When said bars, E thus rest on the hooks, E ,-said door is held firmly in its upper or closed position, and this condition continues until said hooks are moved outward far enough to allow the bars, E to descend. Said hooks are made to move outward by raising the horizontal arms, E", of the bell cranks. To cause said arms to rise automatically when the car reaches the a cam member, A, is each si the lower edge of the adjacent latch arm, E and cause said arm to ride upward on said cam member during the placed at furtherforward movement of the car, the

arm, E, being extended farenou h to bring said cam member into the path 0 said arm.

It is to be observed that said door will not become released unless both arms, E, are raised. Hence said door will not become released through the accidental raising of one of said arms by meansotherthan one of said cam members. Thus the latch mechanism is duplex, and both parts must operate simultaneously before the door becomes released.

of said bell cranks has a e of the track in position .the axle to which it is .secured.

At the forward end of the car there is a shaft, E, which is horizontal and transverse to the len h of the car and has its ends resting in t e side beams, D. On the forward ed e of said dobr are three ears or hinge mem ers, E through which said shaft extends. The rear edge of said door rests upon the forward edge of the second door when the latter is in the upper or closed position.

As soon as the first or latch-controlled door has been released, as above described, the portion rearward of its hinge turns downward'in response to the preponderat ing action of gravity upon said portion, while the shorter portion of said door which is forward. of said hinge moves upward and rearward until it is freed from the rear edge of the next forward or middle door. There upon said door in similar manner turns upon its hinge and frees its forward edge car, the'rearmost door bein held in its upper or closed position by atch mechanism and each of the other doors being held in position by the next rearward door so lon as the latter retains its horizontal or 010 position. Obviously the number of doors in the series may be varied.

Attention is now asked to the fact that the doors are hinged as low as the level of the car axles, and that said level is fixed by the radius of the wheels, B. This tends to bring the load close to the level of the rails.

Furthermore it must be noted that each door is extended downward between its front and rear edges, whereby the load supported by said doors is brought still closer to the level of the rails. x

a When all the doors have been released and allowed to turn for the downward discharge of the load, the continued movement of the car brings the lower face of the forward door into engagement with 'a stationbetween the rails, A, and rising to a sufi- .cient height to force the rear portion of said ary cam member, A, located upon the track menace door upward a little way above its normal gagement with the forward door until the other two doors have successively in the same manner engaged the inclined portion of said cam and have been forced upward thereby. When the rear or latch-controlled door has been thus forced upward, the bars, E engage the bevel faces, E, of the hooks,

E and force said hooks laterally until said arms are above said hooks, whereupon the latter move inward into position beneath said bars. After this has been done, the three doors pass successively out of engagement with the cam member, A As soon as out of such engagement, it falls slightly until its rear edge rests upon the forward edge of the next door, and as soon as the next door passes out of engagement with said cam member, the rear portion of said door falls until its rear edge rests upon'the forward edge of the rear or latch-controlled door. As already described,

the latter is now being held by the latch I mechanism. Thus all the doors have been raised and secured automatically and the car is a in ready for a new load.

It wi now be seen that a train of such cars may be moved forward over the rails, A, to and beyond the dumping station, the doors being automatically opened and afterward automatically closed while the train is in motion. This gives high capacity to the dumping station. Any number of trains comprising convenient numbers of such cars may pass the dumping station in quick successlon.

In the form shown-by the drawings, the

'wheels, B, are relatively small and the doors move downward between the rails. Hence.

the portions of the rails at the dumping station are supported on instead of cross-ties.

The-arrangement of tracks for the movement of cars or trains before arriving at or after leaving the dumping station does not form a part of this invention. Hence piers or columns, A,

I have illustrated only the portion of the track at which the car doors are'released and afterward closed. s I claim as my invention,

1. The combination. of a body, axles carrying said body, wheels carrying said axles, a bottom door hinged to and extending to both sides of one of said axles, latch mechanism supporting one of the edges of said door which is parallel to said axle, and a second door hinged to the other of said axles and having one edge resting on the edge of the latch-controlled door opposite said latch when said doors are in the closed position, substantially as described.

2. The combination" of a body, axles carrying said body, wheels carrying said axles, two doors one hinged to one and the other to the other of said axles and each extending to both sides of its axle, a third door hinged on a line which is parallel to said axles, two of said'doors having an'edge resting upon the edge of an adjacent door and the third doorv having an edge supported by latch mechanism when the doors are in the closed position, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name this 9th day of September, in the year one thousandnine hundred and sixteen.

CHARLES A. GRIFFI 

